Keep it Up!

Every morning as I tend my garden, I always find a spider web. The rain pours and wash down my tiny friend. But moments later the spider comes up and weaves another. These tiny creatures defy all kinds of obstacles like natural calamities or human interventions. The male machos go through elaborate ritual dances with exact web vibrations to win their ladies even if it meant that they will become their succulent meal. Spiders can be patient and cruel. Spiders were here before you and I were born. They are relentless builders. Nothing seems to stop them in starting all over again. Their web building must have been done millions of times. Most garden spiders are harmless to people. Other types are poisonous. Most of them have eight eyes and eight legs. Unlike many other living things, spiders have no ears, but the apparent lack of hearing is being compensated by the hairs in their legs that feels the lightest vibration in their webs. They wait patiently for their unsuspecting prey to touch their sticky silken prison cell. They have no formal jaws, so the poor trapped fly is being liquified by an enzyme to suit their taste. These true blue-blooded areneae, of the arachnid order have elaborate courtship to prevent the male from being eaten by the ladies before fertilization. The male dances to create a precise pattern of vibrations in the web as part of the ritual. Finally as the male wins the female and the mating starts, few males survived after the mating process. Oddly enough, some male spiders co-operate in being eaten by impaling themselves in the females' fangs. Sad as it seems to us humans, the spiders continue to proliferate this way. Today even their venom which are poisonous to humans are under study if they can be used as non-pollutant pesticide. Spider silk genes have been inserted into mammals and plants for purposes of creating a silk factory. Spider silk has the lightness and strength of elasticity that is highly regarded as superior silk. Spiderman may come to reality one day. But I'm not sure if he will come as a superhero or a producer of spider silk. If spiders can start all over again and again, we humans have many more chances than the spiders. We are gifted with five senses. Unlike most spiders that has a short life span of one to two years, except for the tarantulas that can live up to 25 years, we humans have more years to live. Our only problem is how to live those years.